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Topic: Downside of the Bee Vac - Dusk Bees (Read 1045 times)

So I did a cutout this weekend, in-the-eve standard hive for many of you I suspect.

11 combs, 2 feet wide 1 foot high. No bee vac that day. But when I got to the last comb, and pulled it, I was able to see that the void space continues back thru some engineered truss work and my smoke drove the darn bees way back there. *Sigh* Couldn't get them. So I went home and finished my bee vac.

Next day I come out and vac up the bees. Boom, done in 30 minutes. Video of it is here:

But the problem remains, what do you tell the home owner about the forager bees coming home at dusk? How long before they vacate, and how many foragers are there per 10,000 bees?

Tell them bees are active in the day so there will be foragers that come back. Without a queen, eggs nor young larvae, whatever comes back is likely either doomed or may perhaps be welcomed into another colony nearby if they are so lucky.

If its legal in your area to spray some kind of detterant on the surfaces where the hive was, this may be enough to make them cluster elsewhere, but you can expect to see bees after just about any cut out for a short period of time, anywhere from 1-4 days. These may be stragglers or bees from another colony, checking things out or looking to rob spilled honey.

I watched your video and like your vac, but I was thinking the suction could be a little stronger.

The number of foragers will vary as to what is needed/available, water, nectar, pollen, etc...

I'm not sure how to answer that question. If you want some type of guage though, you could temporarily seal up a hive in the day say for ten minutes or so and watch the accumulation of bees at the entrance. If I had to guess, this number will perhaps make up 2-4% of the number of total bees in the hive.